Rice Krispie/Coco Pops Treats!

Recently, I've been missing home quite a lot. With David gone, wedding planning begun, Christmas arriving, and applying for jobs, my head and heart are pretty much in the U.S. most of the time. In my quest to soothe some of my longings for home, I decided to make rice krispie treats. I don't know about you, but to me rice krispies are A. Delicious! B. Easy to make and C. A typical American treat. So off I headed to the local grocery story to grab some ingredients.

But when I arrived at the supermarket a terrible thing happened. There was no rice krispies cereal to be found! I had been craving rice krispie treats for days, it would have been horrible to turn back now. I already had two bags of marshmallows in my hands! Luckily I came across Coco Pops, basically chocolate rice krispies. While I love the simplicity of rice krispies and marshmallows, chocolate never made anything worse...

Two batches later my roommate and I have eaten about 20 of these treats, I've shared with my friends here, and most recently I brought them on travel with me. I'm currently in Cotabato finishing up my work with some last minute interviews. In the afternoon today I offered the treats to my co-workers. None of them had seen such a thing before and I think were quite skeptical. But they were sweet enough to me to at least try them. As I walked around the car one of my co-workers came upon me with his eyes wide, a big smile on his face and a huge bite taken out of his rice krispie/coco pops treat. "You must open a store, you must open a store in Davao and sell these, you can make them different flavors, they are so good...!" And a few minutes later, "You can cook! You must get married, you can cook!" After informing him that I indeed was getting married and I was so happy he enjoyed the sweets I made, I couldn't help giggling to myself. I spread the joy that is rice krispie treats to the Philippines. Also, I'm glad the easiest thing I know how to make is all the proof I need to show that I can cook! Hopefully David is looking forward to long years together marked by many rice krispie treats to eat!

On a side note, last year I joked that I would create an NGO called "Cupcakes for Peace." Basically the idea is that I will make the most delicious sweets ever and bring them to intense negotiations and diplomatic meetings among warring parties. The amazingness of these sweets will make everyone so happy that peace will be made with ease (this idea isn't too far from the serious fact that peacebuilders do have to be aware of the environment they set when facilitating an intense mediation session). I'm pretty sure the joy I saw in my co-worker over my rice krispie treats continues to prove my idea that sweets can really change the world!

Next up: Christmas season in the Philippines!